I stepped outside of my local shopping centre today and this young girl was siting coughing and really hacking her lungs out. I stood there for a while watching her totally dumfounded as she took another drag on her cigarette in between fits of coughing. I smoked myself as a teen till I realised how dumb it was and that it did not fit in with my healthy lifestyle. So I know what it's like trying to give up.
I'm getting on in age at 64 but staying healthy and still surf nearly every day but I worry about the future and maybe getting sick due to an injury or the ageing process but cant get a FKN hospital bed cause some fat arsed smoking bastard is blocking up the system with their total disregard for their health. Smoking ,over eating , over drinking ,abusing the environment.
And here is the solution, Make them pay.
" So sorry but you did this to yourself.This is going to cost you.No, your not covered. Do you own your own home. Interesting. Just sign here."
Why should those of us who try our best to stay in good health get in line behind these people ? Sometimes I really get mad and this is one of these times.

I always find the health freaks are always the sick ones. How can you police if someone is a smoker, has a bad diet and drinks too much?

doesn't the massive tax on smokes contribute to health costs...?

otherwise what are the taxes for...?

1st jan 2000 is a great idea. People's
Right to smoke shouldn't be removed altogether however, but they should be made to smoke in specific areas like in Japan, only in those little booths on the street, or in their own home (providing they don't have children)
I went to a pub on Friday and came home stinking, had to shower before being near my son. It's disgusting that non smokers should be subjected to second hand smoke in public places.
Take your dirty habit elsewhere.

Cambodge said..

Smoking is extremely cost effective to society. Smokers pay lots of tax that helps fund government services for everyone and lung cancer is a very quick and cheap death that doesn't require years and years of palliative care in the health system. No wonder governments can't afford to ban it.

Spoken like a true health economist!

Cambodge said..

Smoking is extremely cost effective to society. Smokers pay lots of tax that helps fund government services for everyone and lung cancer is a very quick and cheap death that doesn't require years and years of palliative care in the health system. No wonder governments can't afford to ban it.

As opposed to emphysema....

Skid said...

Cambodge said..

Smoking is extremely cost effective to society. Smokers pay lots of tax that helps fund government services for everyone and lung cancer is a very quick and cheap death that doesn't require years and years of palliative care in the health system. No wonder governments can't afford to ban it.

As opposed to emphysema....

As opposed to ageing......

rockmagnet said..

I stepped outside of my local shopping centre today and this young girl was siting coughing and really hacking her lungs out. I stood there for a while watching her totally dumfounded as she took another drag on her cigarette in between fits of coughing. I smoked myself as a teen till I realised how dumb it was and that it did not fit in with my healthy lifestyle. So I know what it's like trying to give up.
I'm getting on in age at 64 but staying healthy and still surf nearly every day but I worry about the future and maybe getting sick due to an injury or the ageing process but cant get a FKN hospital bed cause some fat arsed smoking bastard is blocking up the system with their total disregard for their health. Smoking ,over eating , over drinking ,abusing the environment.
And here is the solution, Make them pay.
" So sorry but you did this to yourself.This is going to cost you.No, your not covered. Do you own your own home. Interesting. Just sign here."
Why should those of us who try our best to stay in good health get in line behind these people ? Sometimes I really get mad and this is one of these times.

ha, have you gone to hospital and been told, no beds for you because a smoker needs it first, at 64, looking to the future, ha, you should start smoking again, it seems now that your crazy old, you want younger people to have less freedom than you had, i think in australia more people die of skin cancer, sooooo by your admission anybody who ever went outside, no medical care ever!! nobody clogs up the health system more than old people who wont die but dont really live either!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why are ex smokers the most fanatical anti smokers? Are they jealous? There is a simple rule to life. Live and let live. Let anyone do what they like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. Yeah smoking is not much good for people but if they want to do it, who am I to say no? I probably do things they don't like and I wouldn't like it if they said "no no no".

The "Holier than Though" attitude of ex-smokers is nothing new. I can live with that.

Bottom line is Tobacco, is a perfectly legal product. One can with the proper authority buy, sell and trade in tobacco, and individuals are permitted to use tobacco in designated areas.
Yes the Govt does collect huge amounts of revenue from the sale of tobacco, many times more than the annual health budget. They also collect huge amounts of revenue from alcohol and fuel, many times more than the annual health budget or funding allocated to the upkeep of roads.
Govts are loathe to axe anything that contributes to the coffers and that is why no Govt would be game to ban smoking 100%.

Yes smoking is a dirty, disgusting, smelly, anti social (in some circles) addiction, a fact most smokers will readily admit to but it remains a 100% perfectly legal addiction. Smokers are not the 'enemy of the state', they are not 'second class citizens', they are people with an addiction, yet receive very little (if any) Govt incentive to cure their addiction.(unlike certain other drugs of choice).

I wonder how many anti smoking advocates indulge in the 'past time of their choice' that impacts other people?

Oh by the way.......I don't smoke. I have friends and family that do and we all seem to get along together.

.I agree with Gizmo.

I smoked for a fair part of my life and longer than I want to admit

I tried to give up smoking for 26 years. Every night I went to bed telling my self that I would not light up in the morning, I tried hypnosis, I tried extending the time before lighting up, I tried going out on extend trips with out a supply of smokes, I tried patches, tablets, and any thing else I could think of, even for the sake of my children. I finally got into a routine that was not an actual routine by not smoking in public, and in front of family and friends, (I felt like a leper). This lasted for years. I eventually gave up by reading a book, Allen Carr's Easy way to stop Smoking. I may have just been ready but I stopped. I don't care if the person next to me is smoking or not, it is up to them. If want to talk to them I do if I don't I don't. What I do care about is my children, I want my Children and grand children not to smoke etc. It was a long and lonely battle for me and I don't get the urge to smoke any more (lucky I guess). The point is I kept trying and I got there. What I don't understand is how you can cure an addiction to nicotine with nicotine patches. The best way is just don't start.

And Rupert, I also agree with you on the lack of assistance for smokers who want to quit, nothing short of a joke. Give us name and number and you will receive pamphlets in the mail, how does that help! All smoke and mirror's I say!

I don't get smoking. Puff a little, nothing happens. Puff a lot, you get dizzy or sick. Where is the fun in that?

On the Health Care thing, what is wrong with tweaking the Medicare/Insurance system to make it a bit more reflective of the costs. A discount for fit & skinny, or an increase for flabby and lazy?

That's what happens with any other insurance market. Price is related to risk.

I haven't been to a doctor for years. Why should I be paying for a slob to whine about their overeating in a doctor's surgery? And doing that on an ongoing basis

Mr Milk said..

I don't get drinking. Drink a little, nothing happens. Drink a lot, you get dizzy or sick. Where is the fun in that?

There, fixed it for the non-drinking smokers.

Btw - I'm a non-smoking beer drinker, just thought that the irony of me making any comment would be null & void. If they banned smoking, granted, there would be better health in general - but what would be banned next? Smokers are a 'dying breed' and although it seems to be a trendy thing mainly with young girls, I think the price & education will slowly decrease the number of smokers anyway.

This thread needs some graphs.

Graph of revenue made from cigarettes vs the drop in sales;
(note from about 55% revenue to nearly 300%!)


Graph showing drop in % of smokers;

yep, cant remember the last time i heard of cigarette related violence, ban smoking completely? and on the other hand, were considering make drugs legal? the biggest killer of humans is the poor diet and food choices people make, but that looks like its only getting worse, more processed, as for smokers dropping butts, this is nothing new, but society never really caters well for the butt, if there is the appropriate bin for butts, most smokers will dispose of thier butt correctly, or they should have built the cigarette pack, like a syringe kit, and you dispose the butt into another section of the pack, like the syringe, easy,

I think it's really simple. If you're born after 1980, when you buy a pack of smokes you have to hand over your Medicare card.

worrier said...
One line missing from that graph is the cost of treatment for smokers with all the cancers etc. You need a bigger graph.
I cant remember the exact figures but it has been crunched and published many times before.
The revenue raised from selling smokes is about 10% of what is required to treat smokers until they die.
Not many good ways to die but smoking related cancer would have to be down there with the worst of them. I don't give a **** if smokers die a horrible death I just wish they would all die quicker and nastier then maybe just maybe the message would get through but I doubt it.
As the president of the company who makes Marlborough once said to the original Marlborough man when offered a smoke, "no thanks smoking is for the poor the black and the stupid"
W

Utter claptrap.
Please note smoking is not the only cause of respiratory cancers!
Please validate your statement of cost.
At no point has it been mentioned that the major cause of death in smokers is coronary disease, smokers are more likely to die with a huge cardiac event. This costs the health service, nothing! Nada!